ZUG2007

Hi everyone,

I got a award ticket with LH in Business from Frankfurt-Mexico City on the 15 april.Anyone had a experience with a " Op-up" with a award ticket with LH? Any chances for me ? I am SEN, so even I dont know how full or overbook look like the flight LH 498 and what will be my chances to get op-up to F.

In my last trip from Mex-Frank I was in eco and after the take off or before the meal service, the purser come to talk to me and he just tell me: Mr. XXX please followme becuse I have a good seat for you and he give me a seat in Business Class and I got all Business Class services , I was so suprise. because Eco was not fully, I saw many seats empty.

But I dont know these time even I am in Business ticket award. Maybe I can get op-up to F before the boarding or at the check-in or in the plane.

So, What do you think ? Any chances ?

LH4116

I'd say your chances are very slim. Given the fact that LH only upgrade based on booking class, I'm sure there are quite a few traveling on C&D fares, let alone other Senators traveling on these fares.

RTW1

Less than 1%.....

demue

I would agree that chances are pretty slim. However, just for the sake of it I will say that it is theoretically possible to get an upgrade even when on an Award tix. However, the only time I had that happening was in the days before HON when SEN was top of the food chain and the flight was seriously oversold in Y so they needed to roll over pax into C and then from there into F (on FRA-SIN - no chance these days with so many HONs on paid fares).

I wouldn't write the date you traveled from MEX-FRA as that "rouge" purser giving you a C seat out of the blue could actually get in trouble for extending such generous favors. Never seen it happening on LH unless there was a reason (SEN in Y with seat broken and no room to switch) or when you are Family + Friends).

Good luck anyways. YMMV

Rambuster

Very slim chances.
Better to play the lottery and hope for the jackpot.

dre_techie

In close to 2 years of HON only had one I to O (HON+HOC) upgrade from an outstation before the new fare-based grading rules were implemented. Since then absolutely nothing. I'll sometimes ask how full it is in C, so they think whether they need my seat. I've seen others get upgraded at the gate, non-HON (as they weren't met on arrival), so it must have been based on fare or something else.

Even if it's overbooked there are people on C and J fares who most likely hold status. So it would have to be a social skill based upgrade from I, not a M&M status one.

Rambuster

LH prefers to upgrade the once in a lifetime J fare customer than the twice monthly longhaul D fare HON.

Make your own conclusions about loyalty.
I know I have !

Fendant

Just forget it! LH never upgrades freebee tickets!

ZUG2007

Well, is not a free ticket even is " award ticket " as you know to get a seat in Business Class with LH cost around 60,000miles one way, plus taxes, so if you say: " freebee tickets", maybe you get free the total ticket without pay any single peny fot the ticket, that I will be agree with you.

Also to bea Senator is not easy with LH and LX, is Just a question because there is in the past a few pax with award tickets and the got op-up, but I know LH changed the rules, also in my last experience with LH, for me was a suprise.

demue

Consider yourself super lucky about the (free) upgrade and I hope you bought a lottery ticket the same day. I know I would have . But in all earnest, you heard from folks here that have been HON for years that such upgrades even on paid Biz (Z, D) fares have become rare based on status alone when these days LH tries to push C & J fares.

There are tons of SENs out there even if I agree that it is not an easy status to obtain especially if you are just looking for *G. All the "enhancements" LH has made for HON, SEN over the years have been discussed at length and as Rambuster said everyone needs to draw their own conclusions from that. Which is exactly why I'm FTL since Mar 2013 and will be Blue 2 years after that. My last LH long-haul flight from SE Asia (a while ago thankfully ) had 16 SEN and 8 HON so go figure.

NA-Flyer

In certain LH markets C and J fares are more expensive than A fares

mapu

It has happened to me a few times but only at outstations, never at FRA.

Plus, it is usually quite difficult to impossible to get a miles or voucher upgrade into or out of MEX since there are a lot of A/F-fare paying pax.

rorschi

An upgrade from I to O happened to me (ex-HON) a few weeks ago ex-FRA to NGO...

But obviously all passengers in F were upgraded, as only biz-meals were loaded (the roses were here, though).

NewbieRunner

Interesting. I thought FRA-NGO was sometimes (seasonally?) operated as a two-class service but this flight was intended as a three-class service?

TRAVELSIG

+1